Vilith has left.

My own [Druid] has somehow convinced her to leave.

“Stanimal, you are getting a raise,” I tell the old man while shooting a look at the table where the giant Elf and his other teammates are now sitting.

“The ______ are insane people, they’ve always been so fixated with becoming [Heroes] and whatnot,” Stan says but a mug crashing on the ground covers part of what he just said.

“Yeah, yeah,” I nod at him and excuse myself right after.

“Lucinda,” I say to my woman with a bright smile.

She’s now staring at me.

“That woman was crazy! I swear! I have nothing to hide! You can even truth stone me!” I tell her with my hands in the air.

“No truth stones in personal matters, Joey,” she says with her eyes narrowed.

“Look,” I tell the beautiful and talented blonde Elf, “why should I go with that plain broomstick? You are gorgeous, and I’m sure we can—”

She suddenly erupts in a fit of giggles.

“Huh?”

“I’m not jealous, you flat-eared dummy,” she keeps laughing while shaking her head.

“What? Were you messing with me?” I stare wide-mouthed.

“You bet,” she winks at me with mischief.

“Oh, you,” I scrunch my face in mock-anger.

This little vixen.

“Listen, Joey,” her expression goes softer.

There is still some awkwardness between us. It’s clear that this relationship, whatever the form, is very green, and it will take time before it goes anywhere.

“I spent a lot of time thinking about you today,” she says with a sad smile, “I missed you. You are weirdly entertaining for a Human.”

“Talk about a backhanded compliment. How was work and studying magic?” I ask, ignoring for a moment my duties in the bakery. It’s pretty late, now that I think about it. How late still eludes me. This world’s hour system is truly messed up.

“You… distracted me—thinking about what you did,” Lucinda rambles a bit before laughing it off. I can see that it does needle her, though.

“Augustus said he’s going to come this way later. He wants to congratulate you, apparently,” she wrinkles her nose before going, “you men.”

Even though she instantly moved on, I didn’t miss the problem with what she said. She doesn’t like being distracted by me, does she? Knowing Lucinda, she’s all about putting in the hard work. I don’t think I should feel elated about her being so distracted.

“Hey, Lucinda, I have some work to do now, and I can see Clodia and Amelia looking at me. I think you need to rest and go home. I don’t want to come between you and your duties,” I say with an apologetic smile.

I tell her that I must work so she can feel better about leaving and going home, but I think I miscalculated. In fact, there’s now a dark frown on her face.

Oh, shoot.

She came all this way, and I just dismissed her, didn’t I?

“On a second thought,” I say immediately, grabbing her arm, “why don’t you stay as long as you want? I can even close the place down if you want. I don’t care. Stan! Let’s close up!” I shout to my manager.

He slowly walks in from the outside stand with a surprised expression.

“Is something wrong?” he asks.

“No, Stan,” Lucinda interrupts the question. “It’s just Joey being an idiot. Keep working. This place is not closing until he has done all the work that needs to be done.”

She then stabs me with her eyes and slowly speaks.

“Joey, I came here because I wanted to spend time with you. After wasting time just thinking about that idiot that I kissed, is it too much to ask not to be sent away like that?”

Man, I’m such an idiot.

“No, no. Nothing wrong with that. Please, would you keep me company while I bake? We can even talk about magic and other stuff, ok?”

She sees how desperate I am after realizing my own mistake, and she sighs.

“It’s fine. I’m just not in the best mood. I’m not used to this,” she moves two of her fingers between us.

It’s not like I’m used to a fantasy relationship with an Elf. I’ve never played those kinds of games if you know what I mean.

We settle in a mellow rhythm, with her looking at my smooth motions as I cook. Frying and baking are not easy things to juggle. You have to time it right, in the same way as playing cards is not just playing cards. You need to count how many cards are out or in the game. It’s about timing.

But I’ve danced this dance long enough to be able to talk to Lucinda fairly easily.

“I’ve heard the adventurers and the Watch had some problems,” I say.

“Captain Drusillus is warmer to adventurers compared to your average Watch [Captain], but the man’s still part of the Watch. Dungeons create many problems, especially when they are this close to the city. If I had to guess, Captain Drusillus is probably going to enforce some rules to avoid having monster spillage.”

“Monster what?”

“Spillage. It’s a Dungeoneering term. It means that you get the monsters out, and they follow you back to where you came from. It can get ugly. If the Dungeon is strong enough, it can raze a city to the ground. And when that happens, the city itself will slowly turn into a paradise for monster-breeding. So, Captain Drusillus is making sure they follow protocol. No adventurer really does it. They prefer doing things their way and then begging for forgiveness, rather than asking for permission.”

Huh.

That’s interesting.